[Changes in intracranial pressure in severe head injured patients in hemodialysis].

Two cases of acute post-traumatic renal failure in severely head injured patients are reported. An increase in intracranial pressure (ICP) was shown up by continuous monitoring during haemodialysis: it was more important during conventional haemodialysis than during continuous arteriovenous haemofiltration. Although this effect is well known experimentally, few cases of continuous ICP pressure monitoring have been reported in head injury patients undergoing haemodialysis.

Localization of a salmon calcitonin-like molecule in one type of ultimobranchial cells in the freshwater turtle Pseudemys scripta.

Immunohistochemical methods using affinity adsorbed antibodies raised against the three families of calcitonins (CT) were applied to ultimobranchial (UB) cells in situ to investigate the nature of the Chelonian calcitonin molecule and its distribution in the ultimobranchial bodies of the freshwater turtle, Pseudemys scripta. In this species, the UB glands were present on both sides and consisted of scattered cell clumps between epithelial vesicular structures. The neighboring parathyroid tissue also contained two components, the majority being composed of similar vesicles, with occasional solid cell cords evenly distributed.

Multifactorial study of prognostic factors in differentiated thyroid carcinoma and a re-evaluation of the importance of age.

A multivariate analysis of prognostic factors has been carried out with 375 cases of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) treated in the same centre by total thyroidectomy and 131I therapy. The patients have been followed for 5 to 23 years. The isolated prognostic roles of age, sex, clinical stage and histology were confirmed, but these factors were found to be strongly interrelated.

[ORL selection of French astronauts].

Strict criteria were used, under the control of the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) to select seven French spationautes for future participation in human cargo space flights to take place between 1987-1991 within the framework of the scientific missions of the USA and USSR. Data and results of the clinical O.R.

[Value of the detection of antithyroid antibodies in thyroid pathology].

Antithyroid microsomal hemagglutination antibody (MCHA) and antithyroglobulin hemagglutination antibody (TGHA) were measured in 629 patients with thyroid disease and 100 controls. Thyroid antibodies were present in 4% of control patients, only in women and at low titer. Thyroid antibodies prevalence was 97% in autoimmune thyroiditis (MCHA: 93%; TGHA: 53%), was 55% in Graves disease before treatment (MCHA: 46%; TGHA: 33%) and 90% in the first year following 131I therapy.

Iodine-induced thyrotoxicosis: analysis of eighty-five consecutive cases.

Iodine-induced thyrotoxicosis was documented in eighty-five cases. Eighty per cent occur in apparently normal thyroid glands; 60% among them occur in males. Amiodarone accounted for 50% of iodine-induced thyrotoxicosis.

Would I-123 di-iodotyrosine provide a harmless deiodination test? Concise communication.

Defective iodotyrosine deiodinase activity may benefit from a specific treatment, thus requiring an unequivocal diagnosis. In reported cases this diagnosis has been obtained from an in vivo deiodination test making use of di-iodotyrosine (DIT) labeled either with I-131 or I-125. Dosimetric calculation indicates that such tests may result in unacceptable irradiation of the thyroid of a child wrongly suspected of having defective iodotyrosine deiodinase activity; therefore other methods are needed.

Immunological studies of autoimmune thyroid disorders: abnormalities in the inducer T cell subset and proliferative responses to autologous and allogeneic stimulation.

Various immunological parameters were investigated in patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and Graves' disease (GD). The total T cell numbers were significantly decreased in both diseases whether they were enumerated by E rosetting or by pan-T cell monoclonal antibodies (OKT3 and anti-Leu 1). This diminution was due to a loss in the inducer T cell subset (OKT4+/Leu 3a+) whereas the cytotoxic/suppressor T cells (OKT8+/Leu 2a+) were present at normal levels in both diseases.

Thyroid iodine content measured by x-ray fluorescence in amiodarone-induced thyrotoxicosis: concise communication.

Iodine-induced thyrotoxicosis (liT) is characterized by (a) a low radioiodine uptake, increased by exogenous TSH, and (b) a spontaneous evolution towards cure within a few months. An hypothetical pathogenesis of liT is an initial inflation in the stores of thyroid hormones during iodine excess, followed by their sudden discharge into the circulation. Thyroid iodine content was measured by fluorescent scanning in 10 patients with amiodarone-induced thyrotoxicosis and in various control groups.

[Unusual concentrations of triiodothyronine in the serum due to anti-T3 autoantibodies].

Abnormally high T3 serum concentrations incompatible with the patients' clinical thyroid status were observed in a case of Graves' disease and in a euthyroid patient with hyperlipaemia. T3 was in the form of immune complexes precipitable by polyethyleneglycol. Specific anti-T3 autoantibodies were detected in the serum gammaglobulin fraction.

[Iodine excess and iatrogenic thyroid pathology (author's transl)].

Iodine-induced thyroid disorder is frequent. Amiodarone is responsible for more than half cases of iodine-induced hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. Iodine-induced hypothyroidism is detected by the Perchlorate discharge test where its positivity suggests failure of the normal iodine organification.

Motion sickness caused by rotations about Earth-horizontal and Earth-vertical axes.

Rotation at constant angular velocity about the head's Z-axis, with the rotational axis horizontal (barbecue-spit rotation), causes motion sickness and illusory perceptions of bodily movement. To determine whether such rotations about the head's X- and Y-axes cause similar effects, and to test the validity of the mismatch theory of motion sickness, more than 200 tests (using vertical axes as well as horizontal axes) were administered to 14 subjects. Three different visual conditions were also investigated: normal external vision, vision of only the inside walls of the rotating capsule, and eyes closed in the dark.

Neural tube malformations and trace elements in water.

A retrospective case-control study was conducted to test the hypothesis that there is an association between the trace element content of domestic tap water and neural tube malformations in infants. Of 11 elements examined a notable difference was found only for zinc, this being lower in the cases than in the controls. This difference, however, was small and when allowance is made for the total number of statistical comparisons it is compatible with chance fluctuation.

Influence of otolithic stimulation by horizontal linear acceleration on optokinetic nystagmus and visual motion perception.

Several studies in the past have demonstrated the existence of an Otolith-Ocular Reflex (OOR) in man, although much less sensitive than canal ocular reflex. The present paper 1 confirms these previous results. Nystagmic eye movements (L-nystagmus) appear in the seated subject during horizontal acceleration along the interaural axis in the dark for an acceleration level (1 m/s2) about ten times the perception threshold with a sensitivity of about 0.

Otolithic-acoustic interaction in the control of eye movement.

In order to examine otolithic contribution to eye movements ten subjects were asked to track either a moving acoustic target or a stationary target during subject linear motion on a cart. The relative displacement between the subject and the target was the same in the two situations. Recordings of eye movements during subject lateral acceleration in the dark without any task, or with the task of tracking an imagined stationary target were made as a control.

[Fetal hypothyroidism: a complication of amniofetography. Apropos of 3 cases].

The authors present three cases of fetal hypothyroidism following amniofetography, after they have reviewed the technique and complications of this procedure. (For outlining the fetus by injecting radio-opaque iodides into the amniotic sac). These are cases of hypothyroidism in the fetus caused by overdosage with iodides.